International Law is worthless paper if you cannot and will not back it up with military power.

Dictators do not care for international law. But they fear the US Air Force. The moment the US signaled it would no longer back "international law" putin annexed Crimea and Assad
1/10

gassed his people. International Law is what defence laggards hide behind to not have to spend for their own security (hoping the US will save them from their irresponsibility) .

European politicians like to grandstand about "international law" but NO European nation has the
2/n

the means (nor the will) to the enforce it. European politicians grandstanding about international law always do so in the belief that the US will enforce their balderdash.
So European politicians lecturing the US about "international law" now are utter morons, because they
3/n

Is there a good way to both support Anthropic for their integrity in not caving to the DoD and also loudly criticize Anthropic for walking back their RSP?

I think Ant employees should be reflecting on their company's ethical stance, about as much OAI employees, right now.

I would feel better about this week's activism against OAI, if it wasn't also letting Ant off the hook.

They're doing a crazy thing that endangers all our lives. They just took a step towards more risk, with an attitude of "trust us bro". We should pressure them about it.

I want them to feel bolstered that society has their back on this narrow point with DoD.

But society does not and should not have their back generically, on their overall plan to build superintelligence by automating AI R&D, or their decision to abandon their RSP.

AIRBNB DOESN'T WANT YOU TO KNOW THIS.

Grok found me a $340/night Airbnb for $189.

Here are 8 prompts that expose Airbnb pricing tricks:

1/ The Same Listing Price Hunter

You are a travel research analyst who specializes in finding price discrepancies across booking platforms. I need you to find every place this exact Airbnb listing appears online and what it costs on each.

Please provide:

- Cross-platform search strategy: Exact steps to find this same property on VRBO, Booking .com, Expedia, Hotels. com, TripAdvisor, and direct host websites
- Search methodology: How to use the property name, host name, address clues, photo reverse search, and description keywords to identify the same listing elsewhere
- Price extraction: For each platform found, the nightly rate, cleaning fee, service fee, and total for my exact dates side by side
- Fee structure comparison: How each platform's fee breakdown differs for the same underlying property price
- Platform loyalty benefits: Whether any platform offers cashback, points, or member discounts that reduce the effective price further
- Direct booking detection: How to identify if this host operates a direct booking website or Instagram/Facebook listing where they likely charge less (no platform commission)
- Host contact strategy: If direct booking is possible, how to ethically and safely reach the host outside the platform
- Best deal calculator: After comparing all sources, the true lowest cost for this exact stay including all mandatory fees
- Risk assessment: What protections I lose on cheaper platforms and whether the savings justify the tradeoff

Format as a price comparison report with a platform-by-platform table and a clear "best total price" recommendation.

Airbnb listing details: [PASTE LISTING URL, TITLE, OR DESCRIPTION]
My travel dates: [CHECK-IN / CHECK-OUT]
Number of guests: [GUEST COUNT]

2/ The Dynamic Pricing Decoder

You are a revenue management analyst who has studied Airbnb's pricing algorithm in depth. I need to understand exactly why this listing is priced the way it is and when it will be cheaper.

Please provide:

- Algorithm factors: The 12 variables Airbnb's algorithm uses to set nightly prices (demand signals, local events, competitor pricing, booking window, host settings, seasonal patterns)
- Demand triggers: What is driving this listing's current price up — local events, peak season, last-minute premium, or artificially high base price
- Price history pattern: How to access or estimate this listing's price history using AirDNA, Wheelhouse, and Price Labs data
- Optimal booking window: At what point before check-in does this type of listing typically drop in price (e.g., last-minute discount window, 6-week booking sweet spot)
- Day-of-week pricing: Which check-in days and stay durations trigger lower algorithmic prices for this market
- Seasonal calendar: Month-by-month price patterns for this destination and when this specific listing category is cheapest
- Demand calendar: How to use Google Trends, local event calendars, and conference schedules to find low-demand windows
- Price alert strategy: Exactly how to set up tracking so I am notified the moment this listing drops to a target price
- Negotiation window: When is the host most likely to accept a lower offer (days out, vacancy gap, slower market periods)

Format as a pricing intelligence brief with a calendar showing cheapest booking windows and a target price recommendation.

Listing location: [CITY / NEIGHBORHOOD]
Listing type: [ENTIRE HOME / PRIVATE ROOM / TYPE OF PROPERTY]
My flexible date range: [EARLIEST TO LATEST I CAN TRAVEL]

In Asia, Thailand and South Korea have the highest GDP exposure to imported oil & so the violence today in Korea and Thai markets reflects fear how that will play out.

Note that this is negative for Asia in general but some more than others. The first shock is energy, next comes food.

India and the Philippines have deficits in oil and also current account deficits so while their net oil position is less short as a share of GDP than Thailand or Korea, their financing of it is more dependent on foreign flows.

Of course, oil is not the only channel. But if we were to keep the energy import angle, then Malaysia is much more comfortable than say Thailand in a higher energy cost environment.

And Indonesia while is short oil has coal, and coal prices will rise if oil & gas rise higher for longer.

We haven’t even considered other channels yet, such as marine transport, air transport & finally remittances or employment in the Middle East.

For Asia, especially EM Asia, this is a big negative growth shock. The longer it lingers, the higher the costs. Some will be more vulnerable. Others, may even gain. Say Brunei or Malaysia has exporters. Indonesian coal sellers…

🧵Inertia, Alternate Realities, Quantum Mechanics, NDE’s and being “Entangled with Vehicle” in a Hypothetical Quantum Context 🤓

I asked @Grok 👇🏽
Please explain inertia and what happens when driving without a seatbelt, tying with hypothetical quantum mechanics. What if?

What is Inertia?

Inertia is a fundamental property of matter described by Newton’s First Law of Motion, often called the Law of Inertia. It states that an object at rest will remain at rest, and an object in motion will continue moving at a constant velocity (speed and

direction) unless acted upon by an unbalanced external force. Essentially, inertia is the resistance of an object to changes in its state of motion. This resistance depends on the object’s mass: more massive objects have greater inertia, making them harder to start moving, stop,

Holocaust of India, Jewish Power Murdered 85 Million Indians

1. I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England to rule the Empire. The man who controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire and I control the British money supply.” (Nathan Rothschild

2. said (1777-1836)).

The same Jewish elites who murdered 100 million people in their USSR and another 100 plus million in their holding of Communist China which supported Pol Pot as well. And the hundred million Black Africans who were holocausted in the Jewish run trans

3. Atlantic slave trade. Also murdered 85 million Indians with their control of the British Empire as those in the know called it the Yiddish Empire for a reason.

But guys remember..... Anti-Semitism is the problem in the world, never the Jews...

Victims of the Jewish

Europeans and the American Left do not understand what Spain and the UK's refusal to provide bases to the USA in the war with Iran has done.

They have exposed European fecklessness and unreliability to the American people.

This means things.

1/2

https://twitter.com/visegrad24/status/2028935886067380335

The situation that the West European NATO nations are in is similar to that of Pakistan after Pres. Obama killed Bin Laden in a Pakistani ISI resort town.

It clarified to the American people which side Pakistan was on...

...not America's.

What Starmer & Spain have done is make the same statement about NATO.

2/2

@threadreaderapp unroll please

🚨 Stanford Medicine researchers have reversed autism-like behaviors in mice by calming hyperactivity in the brain’s reticular thalamic nucleus, a sensory “gatekeeper” long overlooked in autism research. Using a seizure drug and neuromodulation, the team restored normal behavior.

The study also links autism and epilepsy through shared brain circuitry, offering hope for targeted future therapies.

Stanford Medicine researchers have uncovered a key mechanism underlying autism-like behaviors in mice by studying the reticular thalamic nucleus (RT) — a small but crucial brain region that acts as a sensory “gatekeeper” between the thalamus and the cortex. Using mice lacking the Cntnap2 gene, a well-established model for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the team found that neurons in the RT showed excessive electrical activity, including elevated burst firing, increased T-type calcium currents, and over-responsiveness to sensory inputs such as light or touch. Behaviorally, these mice displayed traits mirroring human ASD symptoms — hyperactivity, repetitive grooming, social withdrawal, and increased seizure susceptibility.

To correct these abnormalities, researchers used two approaches. First, they administered Z944, a T-type calcium channel blocker currently being tested for epilepsy, which successfully calmed RT hyperactivity and restored normal behaviors. Second, through a chemogenetic neuromodulation technique known as DREADD, they selectively suppressed RT neuron activity using engineered receptors activated by a designer drug — again reversing autism-like behaviors. Strikingly, when they artificially activated RT neurons in healthy mice, it induced similar ASD-like traits, confirming a causal link.

The findings suggest that hyperexcitability in the RT, rather than cortical dysfunction alone, may drive core features of autism. The overlap between autism and epilepsy may stem from this shared thalamic circuitry, as both conditions involve abnormal electrical rhythms in the brain. Researchers propose that the RT could serve as a promising new therapeutic target for ASD, especially for patients who experience sensory overload and seizures.

However, the study was conducted in mice using a single genetic model, so it may not fully represent all forms of autism. Further research — including long-term and randomized clinical trials in humans — is needed to determine whether these results can safely and effectively translate to human therapy.

🚨BREAKING: a 5% wealth tax and a new stimulus check is proposed in Senate.

I reviewed all 154 pages of the new bill, so you don't have to.

Here are all the details:

The "Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act" was introduced today by Senator Sanders.

It has a lot of changes, from a wealth tax, to a new "stimulus check", to a minimum salary for teachers.

Buckle up...

The first proposal is to introduce a 5% ANNUAL wealth tax on individuals or trusts with WORLDWIDE net assets (assets - liabilities) exceeding $1B.

It also includes children’s assets (under age 18).

If someone doesn't have the cash to pay the tax, they'd have to sell stocks or other assets to pay for it.

I don't know if people understand just how insanely egregious this is.

First of all, 1) not only are NATO spending targets NOT legally binding (nothing in any NATO-related legal text mandates a specific GDP-based threshold for defense spending), but on top of this 2) Spain requested AND RECEIVED an exemption from the 5% target at the 2025 Hague Summit - NATO changed the declaration's language specifically to allow Spain to sign while publicly declaring it would not comply (jurist.org/news/2025/06/n…)

This means that, legally speaking and according to NATO's own rules, Spain is doubly within its rights: there is no binding obligation to begin with, and Spain was excused from even this non-binding obligation.

That's the first point: Germany's chancellor just endorsed - from the Oval Office - the U.S. punishing a fellow EU nation for refusing to comply with an obligation that doesn't exist in law, under a political pledge Spain was excused from at a NATO summit.

The second point is that this 5% target has nothing to do with "defense", quite the contrary in fact: it is pretty explicitly an imperial tribute to the U.S. that will actually **weaken** European defense.

That was Spain's main argument for refusing to comply: Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said that "committing to 5% would not make us any safer" because it "would only reinforce our dependence" on the U.S. (tiempoar.com.ar/ta_article/ped…)

That's the insane thing about EU defense spending: in recent years, the more it has spent on defense, the more that spending has flowed to American contractors as opposed to European ones, making the EU defense industry weaker (x.com/adam_tooze/sta…). Increasing spending to 5% doesn't strengthen European defense: it accelerates exactly this transfer.

All the more insane given the well-documented production backlogs in the U.S. defense industry and its inability to produce at scale: US defense analysts - including from Trump-adjacent think tanks like AEI (aei.org/research-produ…) - openly acknowledge that European customers would be deprioritized behind U.S. ones in any real conflict.

AND, critically, a defense industry from a country that's increasingly hostile to Europe - explicitly so in its National Security Strategy - and whose weaponry has "kill switches" that allows for remote disabling.

I mean, the sheer madness of it: anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that DOUBLING your defense spending to enrich a foreign arms industry that has kill switches on your weapons, can't meet its own military's needs, and increasingly treats you as an adversary, is not even remotely a defense strategy - it's suicide.

That's why having Merz - in the oval office, sitting next to Trump - endorse economic coercion against the one EU country that's still sane enough to see through this madness is so egregious, and frankly straight-up traitorous.

For those who know Asterix and Obelix, Spain is the "one small village still holding out against the invaders" and Merz is Cassius Ceramix, the self-described "gallo-roman" Gaul village chief who's the incarnation of all sycophants after his tribe were conquered by the Romans.

I'm with Asterix, and all Europeans should be too.

The "one small village still holding out against the invaders"

https://x.com/POLITICOEurope/status/2028921805893767623?s=20

😅

https://x.com/Raoul_Duke138/status/2029025812968550478?s=20

Iran has struck at least 11 U.S. military facilities since Saturday. @heytherehaley @riley_mellen and I found damage on or near communications and radar systems at 7 of them (no paywall link here) nyti.ms/4upLCnl

Satellite imagery shows two AN/GSC-52B SATCOM terminals at the US Navy's 5th Fleet HQ in Bahrain were destroyed. These play a key role in facilitating high-capacity and near real-time communication for the U.S. military.

A tent surrounded by satellite dishes was destroyed at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Some of the dishes were most likely damaged as well. Al Udeid is the regional headquarters for the US Central Command, and was similarly struck by Iran last June.

Infrastructure expansion — highways, expressways, rail electrification, airports, ports.

Digital India & UPI revolution — world-leading digital payments ecosystem.

Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) — subsidies delivered directly to citizens, cutting leakages.

https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1305759713989099520

Jan Dhan–Aadhaar–Mobile (JAM) financial inclusion — hundreds of millions brought into banking.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) — creation of a unified national market.

Mass electrification & basic utilities — near-universal village electrification and household connections.

Swachh Bharat sanitation drive — massive rural toilet construction and sanitation push.

Strategic assertiveness — Balakot strike and stronger national security posture.

Global diplomatic visibility — elevated India’s profile in QUAD, G20 leadership, Global South outreach.